Keola Beamer

Keola Beamer (born Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer February 18, 1951)[1] is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music. Keola Beamer comes from one of Hawaii's most respected musical families.[2]

Keola Beamer at workshop

Family

Keola was born in Hawaii on February 18, 1951.[1] His mother, Winona Beamer ("Auntie Nona") has been one of the most important figures in the revival of Hawaiian culture since the 1940s: composer, dancerand educator,[3] she coined of the term "Hawaiiana," which describes the cultural-studies area she pioneered at the Kamehameha Schools.[4] He comes from a line of musicians five generations back,[5] and can also trace his roots to the House of Kamehameha and Ahiakumai, 15th century rulers of Hawaii.[6][3] His great grandmother was Helen Desha Beamer, an influential songwriter and hula dancer.[7] Keola's father is Odell Steppe.[5] Keola is also a cancer survivor. [8]

Career

Keola Beamer is a Hawaiian music legend and master of the slack-key guitar.[9] His career spans from early 1970s.[10]

Beamer's debut recording in 1972 was headlined "Jack de Mello presents Keola Beamer" and titled "Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style",[11] followed in the same year by an album with his brother Kapono Beamer in 1972. This second album was headlined "Jack de Mello presents Keola and Kapono Beamer" and titled "This Is Our Island Home - We Are Her Sons," and subtitled "Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style". The album featured traditional songs as well as songs composed by Keola, Kapono, and their mother Winona. Keola and his younger brother Kapono performed as a duo, mixing traditional materials and styles with mainland pop influences. In the seven albums they produced over the next decade, they played an important part in establishing the style that came to be called "Hawaiian contemporary," rooted in Hawaiian language and tradition but open to influences from elsewhere: rock, pop, Latin, folk-revival singer-songwriter, Hollywood soundtrack, and so on. The title song of the brothers' 1978 LP Honolulu City Lights was an enormously popular single in the Hawaiian local market, and in 2004 Honolulu Magazine placed the album first on a list of the fifty most important Hawaiian albums. In the 1980s, the brothers went their separate ways professionally, each producing award-winning records. After several pop-oriented albums, Keola connected with George Winston's Dancing Cat recording project for five releases between 1994 and 2002, emphasizing slack key guitar and Hawaiian lyrics, but by no means abandoning "contemporary" influences.

Keola and Moana Beamer

Beamer has also been influential as a teacher. He started offering lessons in the early 1970s, at a time when most players would only reveal their musical secrets to family members. About 1972, both Keola and Kapono provided slack key guitar lessons at the Guitar and Lute Workshop, a custom guitar manufacturer and recording studio located near Ala Moana Shopping Center on Piikoi Street. "In my early twenties, I was making guitars with George Gilmore and Donald Marienthal. We had the wild idea we could make nice guitars out of koa and mango wood so we took out a loan from the Small Business Administration and started the Guitar and Lute Workshop on Waimanu Street in Honolulu. People started coming in to ask about slack key. There were very few teachers back then, so I agreed to try it."[12] Keola also published an instruction manual entitled "Hawaiian Slack Key." Teaching became his main job for several years until he turned to full-time performing and composing.

In 1973 he published First Method for the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar (which was in fact the first instruction book for the form), and in the 1990s he produced several more instruction books and videos and started offering lessons on-line via his website. Since 2001, he has run a series of "cultural immersion" workshops dedicated not only to slack key but other aspects of Hawaiiana. Meanwhile, he has continued to tour and to release CDs on his own 'Ohe Records label. In 2014, he was honored with a NACF Artist Fellowship for Music.[13] He lives in Lahaina, Hawaii.

Beamer was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2012 under the Best Regional Roots Music Album category, which is now the catch all category for Hawaiian music. The same year the musical soundtrack for the motion picture movie Descendants was also nominated for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Which is an album Beamer played on and contributed to.[14]

Beamer has influenced many guitar players.[15]

Discography
  • Keola Beamer & Raiatea (2013)
  • Malama Ko Aloha (Keep Your Love) (2012)
  • Kahikina O Ka Hau (The Coming of the Snow) (2011)
  • Keola Beamer & Raiatea (2010)
  • Our Beloved Land (with R. Carlos Nakai) (2005)
  • Ki Ho'alu (Loosen the Key) DVD (2003)
  • Mohala Hou - Music of the Hawaiian Renaissance (2003)
  • Ka Leo O Loko - Soliloquy (2002)
  • Island Born (2001)
  • Kolohane - From the Gentle Wind (1999)
  • Mauna Kea - White Mountain Journal (1997)
  • The Golden Lehua Tree (narrated by Nona Beamer) (1996)
  • Moe'uhane Kika - Tales from the Dream Guitar (1995)
  • Wooden Boat (1994)
  • Sweet Maui Moon (1989)
  • Honolulu City Lights (1978)
  • Keola and Kapono Beamer (1976)
  • Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style (1972)
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References
  1. Walters, Neal; Mansfield, Brian (1998). MusicHound Folk: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink. p. 1937. ISBN 978-1-57859-037-7.
  2. "Remembering A Legendary Hawaiian Musician". Nprillinois.org. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
  3. Larkin, Colin (1995). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Guinness Pub. p. 320. ISBN 978-1-56159-176-3.
  4. Rayson, Ann (2004). Modern History of Hawai'i. Bess Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-57306-209-1.
  5. Hopkins, Jerry (1982). The Hula. Apa Productions (HK). p. 182. ISBN 978-1573063128.
  6. Bennett Peterson, Barbara (1984). Notable Women of Hawaii. University of Hawaii Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-8248-0820-4.
  7. Horowitz, Lenore; Horowitz, Mirah (14 December 2010). Kauai Underground Guide: 19th Edition Ñ And Free Hawaiian Music CD. Papaloa Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-9745956-3-4.
  8. "LONG STORY SHORT WITH LESLIE WILCOX Keola Beamer | PBS Hawai'i". www.pbshawaii.org. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
  9. Schweitzer, Marsha (10 May 2019). The Arts from the Bottom Up: Three Little Books About Labor, Management, and Mission in the Arts. Archway Publishing. p. 414. ISBN 978-1-4808-7694-1.
  10. Islands Magazine. 1999. p. 36. ISSN 0745-7847.
  11. Ophee, Matanya (1990). The Orphée Data-base of Guitar Records. Editions Orphée. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-936186-35-1.
  12. "Home of Slack-Key Master Keola Beamer". Kbeamer.com.
  13. "Keola Beamer | Native Arts and Cultures Foundation". April 15, 2014. Archived from the original on April 15, 2014.
  14. "Two Hawaii musicians,"Descendants" soundtrack pick up Grammy nominations". Hawaii Magazine. 2012-12-07. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
  15. Wang, Andrew (2015-04-22). "My Adventures in Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
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